[New-Poetry] Academy-Award Winnning Sad Thought

[Skip Fox]

Nice. But I'd argue that _Fidget_ is worth a look. He tries to capture every
movement of his body that he can (aware there's always selection, a fiction
of sorts) for a 18 hour period (or 16?). A book without a head. During the
book he masturbates, has a strongly anxious reaction to his own recording,
takes a walk, and gets drunk. (The last chapter is a letter-reversed
word-by-word "copy" of the first, which he has trained himself to read . . .
it's on ubu.com).You're right, a conceptual artist, in words, yet one who is
pushing some conditions in interesting ways. I'm glad he's doing it.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu
[mailto:new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu] On Behalf Of jforjames at aol.com
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 2:26 PM
To: new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Academy-Award Winnning Sad Thought 

 

I'm no Kenneth Goldsmith expert, for sure...but I think him mostly as not a
poet but as a conceptual artist. I once wrote in my notebook that I hoped
never to be so bored with my life, that I'd actually read any of Kenneth
Goldsmith's 'poetry'. Most of it is not really to be read, or I don't think
so anyway. It's really his attempt to provoke thinking about what literature
is; how text works and doesn't work, etc. Or some of it could be described
as 'postmodadaism'.

 

It probably can be said that somewhere toward the end of the 20thC no poets
existed outside of their readership by other poets (in or out of the
academy). There are exceptions of course: Ginsberg when he was alive, a
cultural phenom like Maya Angelou, Billy Collins who raised his sails deftly
and high enough to catch the Zeitgeist and cruise outside of the territorial
waters of Poets' Island. And there are some unsubstantiated reports of
'common readers' who still attend to poetry. But those folks always remind
of the Japanese soldiers who would be found 10, 20, 30 years after the end
of hostilities in the Pacific, living rough in caves on a deserted atoll,
still awaiting orders from The Emperor to return home.   

Finnegan

 

 
-----Original Message-----
From: cstroffo at earthlink.net
Sent: Fri, 18 May 2007 2:15 PM
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Academy-Award Winnning Sad Thought 

Correction---I meant Jersey City (not Hoboken)..... 

 

On May 18, 2007, at 11:12 AM, Chris Stroffolino wrote:





Ah, the feel good hit in the summer. 

 

I thought Kenny-G had a thinkership, or at least a listenership, through his
radio show on WFMU. 

WFMU was a college radio station in The Oranges (New Jersey), but even when
the college went under,

the station still existed. For  a few years, they used to proudly announce
how they broadcasted from a "Ghost Campus."

Then, since much of their listening audience was in the NYC metropolitan
area, they relocated to Hoboken.

I doubt the film would win an academy award, but you never know.

Maybe Kenny G., will argue that his DJ existence was not in any way
connected with his poet existence....

 

On May 18, 2007, at 10:20 AM, JforJames at aol.com wrote:





http://poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2007/05/the_academy.html

 

Kenneth Goldsmith--

"Without the academy, as I poet I don't exist. I have almost no readership
(thinkership) outside the academy. This is not a choice of mine: it's is a
condition that preceded my arrival onto the writing scene, fostered by
numerous cultural conditions in the States -- primarily by the precedent set
by the warm reception of Language Poetry by the academy in the 80s. As a
result, since then, innovative or experimental writing lives only in the
academy. "

 

--

It's the reader's fault--Finnegan

 





  _____  

See what's free at AOL.com <http://www.aol.com/?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503> .


_______________________________________________

New-Poetry mailing list

New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu

http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry

 

_______________________________________________

New-Poetry mailing list

New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu

http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry

 

= 

_______________________________________________

New-Poetry mailing list

New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu <javascript:parent.ComposeTo(> 

http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry

  _____  

AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from
AOL at  <http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000437> AOL.com.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/pipermail/new-poetry/attachments/20070518/8f686cca/attachment.html